Apr 20, 2010

Joe Deal

i first became aware of Joe Deal's work when i found a copy of Southern California Photographs. his work made me look closer - and want to shoot in mono again. it has been some time since i've gone back to sit with it. i should.

recently, while looking at the new printing of New Topographics, i've been asking myself, and others, why he isn't more widely acknowledged. although, i don't respond to the photos in this book the way i do Adams' or Gohlke's for instance, his photographs in California are up there with the best in my opinion.

i'm embarrassed to say he had kind of fell off my radar lately, but he made a bold resurgence tonight with his West And West work that i'm just now catching up with. this work is deceptive in its simplicity. the great plains in all it's austere reverence.